A STUDENT from Bolton caught up in the Istanbul terrorist attack fears if her flight from Manchester had not been delayed she could have been killed.

Heather Nelson flew from Manchester Airport on Tuesday afternoon to Istanbul's Ataturk airport , where 41 people were killed and 239 people were injured when three attackers opened fire and blew themselves up.

Heather told her family back home that she could see blood everywhere and that the airport was a scene of devastation, like something from a movie.

Her flight from Manchester had been delayed for about 30 minutes, and she feared that had she landed any sooner, she could have been caught up in the terrorist attack.

Her father Mike Nelson told The Bolton News: "We were watching the news on the TV and heard about it.

"I was thinking, where was the airport Heather was going to? And we realised it was the same one.

"We had about an hour when we didn't know where she was, because we we couldn't get hold of her on the phone while she was on the plane.

"But she rang and said she was OK and put a picture on Facebook, so after the initial panic we knew she was OK.

"It was just lucky the flight was delayed, she could have been caught up in it."

On landing, the 20-year-old and the other passengers left the plane and were taken on a bus to the terminal, but after a few minutes the bus stopped and turned around.

They were taken back and told to remain on the plane, where passengers were told there had been an attack.

They spent about an hour on the plane while the police and the security services worked in the area, before they were allowed off and travelled through the terminal.

The passengers were later taken to a hotel near to the airport, where Heather remains.

Heather, from Over Hulton, was travelling to Istanbul as a connecting flight, before she plans to travel to Manila in the Philippines where she will meet a friend.

Flights have now resumed, and Heather, a journalism student at the University of Leeds, hopes to board a flight soon.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack so far, but the Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said he believed it could be the work of Islamic State.

Three attackers arrived at the airport in a taxi at about 8pm Turkish time, and began firing at the terminal entrance.

They blew themselves up after police fired back at them.

At least 13 of those killed are believed to be foreign, and no British people are thought to have been among them.